Posts tagged ‘1950s’

May 13

Rorstrand “Mon Amie” Marianne Westman

Marianne Westman (1928-2017) is one of the most loved and well known designers of 20th Century Swedish ceramics.

In her time at Rorstrand Sweden where she worked from 1950 to 1971, her skill in design and her ability to identify new trends meant that during their peak, her designs like Mon Amie and Picknick represented almost half of Rorstand’s massive volume of sales.

Marianne’s first design for Rostrand was Mon Amie, released in 1952 – based on her earlier drawings of white Labrador tea flowers. It was to become one of her most popular designs, and was re-released (on updated forms) by Rorstrand in 2008 to celebrate Marianne’s 80th Birthday. It is powerful design which still resonates with people today.

Her skilful designs of the 1950s and 1960s have a distinctive, often light hearted feel about them which are stylistically so indicative of the era – and it is the designs from this era which appeal to me the most. Mon Amie, Picknick, Pomona, Verdura, Knorr, Verdura and Tippa are some of these charming early designs by Marianne.

Recently I was fortunate enough to come across a few pieces of Mon Amie:

Rorstrand Mon Amie – Cane Handled Teapot

Rorstrand Mon Amie

Rorstrand Mon Amie – Open Sugar Bowl on Saucer

Rorstrand Mon Amie

Sep 10

Elle Keramikk, Norway

The Elle Keramikk AS studio/factory operated in Norway near Oslo between 1942 and 1967. They produced a wide variety of pottery, but have become best known for their beautifully decorated, patterned fajance pieces. I used to come across the odd piece from time to time, but haven’t in a very long time now.

If you want to learn more about this charming pottery, go to the blog Elle Keramikk ,written by Trond Rødli (you will need to use an online translater platform for English).

Trond’s website has a comprehensive amount of information from years of collecting Elle pieces. The information includes many of the signatures, labels and hundreds of wonderful examples of Elle Keramik from this distinctive Norwegian Pottery.

Below are a few examples I found on Etsy. I can not locate the few archived images I had some years ago.

Elle Norway via “Coolect” on etsy

Aug 10

Diana Australia - Fish Shaped Ramekins c1950s

Diana Australia, Fish Ramekin Set

Have a look at this fabulous and fun set of fish ramekins or bowls from Australian pottery “Diana” c1950s, possibly early 1960s.

They are made from slipcast earthenware, as most production pottery would have been at this time. Typical of the colours of this time – which all work so well together. I like the attention to detail like the grey shading on the exteriors, the hand painted eyes, and the fins which have managed to survive intact for about 60+ years.

The stamp you see on the base of one of them below is of course depicting Diana the Huntress (Roman Mythology), the logo of this pottery during that era.

If you are not familiar with Diana Pottery, see my previous post Diana Australia (which has further links for more of the history of this pottery)